We have a case with you since 2 weeks. We have spent 2 hours on the phone twice with your colleagues trying to sort it out, but no luck. It has been lifted to a higher level of support - but even after 3 push calls - they do not call back. (The case is still open and un-answered)

It has now gone so bad that we were faced with leaving Edge Animate altogether.

But today I restored a backup from before the upgrade to 1.5 and now it finally works again.

We are doing extreme animations from opera and ballets - using pictures from the best photographers in the world - but now for 3 weeks we have not been able to publish what out customers require.

Shame on you.....

We are Mac people - using the latest versions of OS X (10.8.3) - so it is more serious than a Vista application.

Please bite the bullet and give everybody an alternative to remove 1.5 if it does not work.

The problem is that when you have done the animation - it works fine in preview in browser - but after publish it only shows a blank screen. It looks to me that Adobe have changed the directory structure - after 1.5 it is published in 3 different locations.

I've escalated on my side to make sure our support staff know that you were left in the lurch. In the meantime, I'd like to take a look at your problem - can you send me a link to your source files using creative.adobe.com, Adobe SendNow, DropBox, Google Drive, or some similar service? We didn't change anything in publish between 1.0 and 1.5, so I'm definitely curious as to what's going on.

I'm definitely disappointed to hear you had such a problem. We're looking into it right now to see what happened, both on the support side and hopefully to get the problematic project, and I totally understand that you have a business to run. Our user community is super important to us, and we try to make sure people are taken care of as best as possible. I'd suggest that you turn to the forums in the future to get your questions answered. While you don't always have staff like me answering, there are a lot of knowledgeable people who know the ins and outs of the program who can give you suggestions.

We all follow the forums frequently - but this time it was more serious so we contacted Adobe by phone instead (although we live in London, UK). Your support must surely be the first to contact in a case like this?

Yes, the support staff should be able to address issues; there was obviously some kind of bottleneck or problem that led to your frustration, and we now have someone from our product team chasing down the issue to see what happened so we can avoid this kind of situation in the future. Thanks a ton for your ticket information - it'll help us nail down what happened, and I'll circle back once we figure out what wires got crossed. As you can imagine, Adobe is a huge company, and while this means we have the advantage of lots of resources to help us out, it also means sometimes we get to hunt down a needle in a haystack.

Yes I understand that - and just to tell you a bit from the other side of the coin - it is 9.25 in the evening before a long weekend - but right now we are happy working again to compensate from the lost two weeks. But we are all genuinely happy because creative people need the stimulants from our special extreme type of work to enjoy life.

I am also happy right now because I was the one who persuaded the shift from Flash to Edge - but please make it not happen again.

We're working with our Tier 3 support to see what happened and to get the problem addressed - I told them that you were on holiday until next week, so they should be contacting you then. That being said, I got access to the video of your desktop that was recorded during your session and skimmed through it. A couple of things to ask:

Were the contents of your edge_includes/ and images/ directory uploaded to your site? It was unclear to me whether or not that was uploaded already (I saw the directory name, but didn't see if you went into it), as I saw you go through Dreamweaver to upload the four JS files but not the runtime or existing images.

Did you happen to use any type of inspector, like Chrome Inspector or Firebug for Firefox to see if your images were being loaded at all?

It looks like there are no assets attached to the ticket, so we're not in any luck there. I don't suppose you have it archived anywhere? I'm also on my way out for the long weekend, so let's touch base on Monday.

It is still 1 am but I will answer your questions now instead of tomorrow morning:

I did it with your colleges in such a way that we made a new directory to publish to locally. Then I published it locally and saw that the new files had arrived as expected. Then I used Dreamweaver to upload the new files to the site..

Then I used Fetch to see that they were in the right location.

Then I checked that the URL presented the published files - it was as expected because it did not show any error message. It was just a blank screen but it showed the preloader (but it did not show any operation)

Then I downloaded that file back into Dreamweaver - and I could play the animation perfectly in Preview in Browser in Dreamweaver Live.

The problem is the upload or the directory structure linked to it. Over 2 weeks I tried everything possible - I suspected it to be the new 1.5 version but Creative Cloud does not give you the alternative to restore an older version. I took down a backup of the old version, something I did not expect to work - but it did - so we are now back in business again.

I will get a call later today from Harshit yadav (Tier 3 Creative Support) who will try to find out what happened. I will wait for that - but I am extremely negative to Creative Cloud Support at present.

The problem is the upload or the directory structure linked to it. Over 2 weeks I tried everything possible - I suspected it to be the new 1.5 version but Creative Cloud does not give you the alternative to restore an older version. I took down a backup of the old version, something I did not expect to work - but it did - so we are now back in business again.

I will get a call later today from Harshit yadav (Tier 3 Creative Support) who will try to find out what happened. I will wait for that - but I am extremely negative to Creative Cloud Support at present.

TJ you might have better luck finding resolution here - you're dealing with the core product team and highly skilled friends of Animate and you have our ear. I also want to gain an understanding of why this is happening, from your description of the problem it doesn't make sense for this to be a versioning issue and sounds more like an upload management issue.

In any case we're here to help, answering the questions asked will help us better get you some resolution with the 1.5 build.

I have gone through 2 weeks of hell that started when 1.5 was given to us and disappeared when I found a way to return to the old version. I got a lot of help from Elaine Finnel, not to sort out the problem but to make Adobe react at all.

I am extremely positive to Animate - but right now I am negative to Adobe - and had an HTML5 alternative to Edge Animate existed - I would have jumped ship - but instead, I will have to work with you.

So when I have a serious problem and need support - who shall I contact? You? Elaine?

The different support people that have been involved so far does not know anything more that I do already. The product is one thing, explaining the content and the purpose of a new release is another thing - and giving one of you the right to manoeuvre my computer whilst talking over the phone, should be the very best thing. In this case, I have done that twice over 2 hour sessions each time without getting any closer to sorting out the problem.

Like I said, we're trying to help you. The only way we can do that is by looking at the problematic assets and by having you answer the questions to help narrow down the issue. I understand your frustration and like I said we're trying to help, but we can't do that without your assistance. What we need from you if you want us to help:

A copy of your assets

A link to your uploaded website (a test directory is fine) where you're experiencing the problem

Answers to the questions asked above:

Were the contents of your edge_includes/ and images/ directory uploaded to your site? It was unclear to me whether or not that was uploaded already (I saw the directory name, but didn't see if you went into it), as I saw you go through Dreamweaver to upload the four JS files but not the runtime or existing images.

Did you happen to use any type of inspector, like Chrome Inspector or Firebug for Firefox to see if your images were being loaded at all?

You say "1.5 doesn't work" but from what I can tell you're not having problems with the application, just the output, yes?

Have you done a test of your files locally? If everything works for you offline, there could be a problem with your uploading.

Are you embedding the composition as an OAM through Dreamweaver or using another method of embed?

Since your last email I have been asked by Harshit yadav (Tier 3 Creative Support) to give him everything you ask plus a lot more. I will give all the information I have, plus access both to hosted server in the US and to our LAN un London, UK.

But shall I work with him - or with you - or with Elaine ? It would be stupid to work with all of you without any sync….

I have had 2 times 2 hour sessions with Adobe support people without any of them proposing to upload a new edge include - and I am now waiting for a feedback from support 3 who I haven given access to the server as well as to one of our computers here..

It sounds very likely that you are right - and if you are - what does this tell us about Adobe Support ? (Outsourced to India)

Just saying, two one-on-one sessions for a free product to try and help diagnose your problem isn't that bad.

Like I mentioned, you're dealing with the core Animate team here and highly skilled community members - we've offered assistance, several times, though without the information we're asking for we can't help.

I have the same problem. I have an animation that was working but now only showes a blank page when trying to access it from the server. It works in preview just fine.

I had since moved on from that file but thought I'd take a look after reading this thread.

I don't know if this will help but at some point I had added a pre-loader. I think I may have tried to remove it, I'm not sure but I noticed for a flash of a second when loading, there was a broken image displayed.

I opened the file in Edge, went to the pre-loader properties tab and saw a broken image there. I removed it from the project, saved and re-upload the page. Now it works fine running from the server!

Just my 2¢ but it fixed the problem here. I think Edge is a bit of a stickler if something is missing, like an image...

Well, since Sarah and I take weekends and days off, you're probably better off asking the forum and crowdsourcing the issue. That being said, we're working with our support infrastructure to address the issues you encountered while trying to get support for your issue. As Sarah mentioned, our support staff is available and can help with most of the common problems that people have with our product. But they're not the experts we who are developing the product are, as we on the core engineering team define the features and have hit upon many complexities with the web ecosystem during the day to day of our job. We're pushing answers and things to check to the support team, and I know that they are constantly checking the forums for the correct answers to questions to improve their own service.

To clarify Sarah's statement, Edge Animate is currently also available to unpaid members of the Creative Cloud, so we consider it an unpaid product. As it's a nascent product, the support structure is still growing in maturity - I'd expect the support for Photoshop to be much more experienced with the product compared to something that only released 1.0 six months ago.

The reason I asked the question about whether or not you used Firebug or Chrome Inspector is that those tools can tell you immediately if you're missing resources or dependencies. It's an invaluable tool for developing in Animate, and you can get a little more information from Josh Hatwich's blog post here:

I started to follow Edge from the very beginning - and I decided that we should use it professionally for all animations (replacing Flash) after participating in the formal launch in London. During that time I have seen your name many, many times when I have followed the forums.

But this time it is different - it is a genuine bug that needs fixing and that is why I contacted support. Right now it is being handled by HARSHIT YADAV in India and I believe that he will find out what it is. I have given him access to the server as well as to one local Mac in our LAN so that he can replicate the situation.

But I am puzzled about Adobe and I have therefore asked Sarah several times: who is in charge of what - and who shall I contact. I have not got an answer that I understand.

So my guess is that you and Sarah lives in the States and takes care of the edge animate forum. Most of the questions there are about lack of knowledge but sometimes also about functionality that are in the pipeline and will maybe or certainly come in a new release.

But I do not know where the actual developer brains live and work. (I suspect that the core still comes out of Macromedia - but they may or may not have relocated to the US.)

What I have learnt from this experience is first of all that Adobe Edge Animate support seems to be i a total mess. It has taken weeks - I have had two very long sessions where support people have shared the use of one of our Macs, and only one of them understood what he was doing - but none of them was able to locate a fault.

And now it has escalated to level 3 (Harshit) and he is part of an outsourcing contract in India.

So if you and Sarah have the power - please tell Adobe people in charge that the lack of quality in support may kill one of the best products brought to market that I have ever seen.

…and it still is hundreds of issues that needs fixing - how you handle image directories if you have thousands of images all being used by Edge Animate but belonging to different projects and different clients - and how and why it is different to upload using different software and so on.

Tu sum it up: Edge Animate is a fantastic concept (but it is still not a full product today) - but Adobe Help and Adobe Support is way below acceptable limits.

Joe and I work on the Adobe Edge Animate engineering team. Sarah is now our product manager (used to be in engineering), which means that she is the one that guides and shapes our product, deciding which features make it in and out of the product. We work closely together and are based in North America at one of Adobe's offices in the Pacific time zone. As for the forums, we are not obligated to respond to any forum posts at all, but we're doing so in our spare time to invest in our community. People like Darrell, Marie, Tim, and Joel are a big part of the sharing/learning experience of developing a new product, and we hope that the community is a big part of your experience with Adobe's products. I do not recommend that you contact us individually, as our availability varies wildly due to the commitment we have to getting the next version of Animate out the door and into your hands.

Harshit and Josh are both on our support staff and have participated in the forums. While Harshit is based in India, our support organization is global and supports people around the world. Adobe does have development offices around the world, not just in North America.

We are working on improving support for this very new product. Trust me when I say that we take this seriously. While it seems like there is this big machinery called Adobe and we're just a small cog, we are in contact with support to improve the experience.

You're right that there are some areas that are still developing in Animate. We did a very public series of prereleases to our community to show you guys that we are moving quickly to provide killer features in this product. We are a small team doing big things, and we're adding great new features on a regular basis.

I totally get that you're unhappy and I'm glad that you're choosing to work with Harshit to try to get your issue resolved.

To address your question, here's what I recommend that you do in the future:

Search the forums first. (I'm sure you did that.)

Ask your question in the forum, and attach a link to your project. Generally, you'll find someone else who has tried to do what you've done, failed, and then found a solution, or you'll find someone who has troubleshooted a lot of projects who can devote a couple of minutes to taking a look at your project. Joe and I also check the forums regularly and can help at times.

Finally, if you're really stuck, you can try escalating through support. However, consider this before going to support:

In the forums, you have a short circuit to the dev team

In the forums, you have professional web developers who live, breathe, and eat HTML

With support, you often have people who are trained to troubleshoot problems with multiple Adobe products. While they're great at working on things within a product, they probably don't have the experience with the product that other users have.

If a problem comes up that I cannot sort out myself (I did not come down with the last shower of rain) - and I cannot find any solution to even a hint in the forums - the logical next step for me is first to try a web chat - and if that fails (and not just in this case but it has failed 100% with all Adobe products) - the next step for me is to have one of you on the phone with a shared screen so that we together can locate the fault. I have done this many times in my life with different products and different manufacturers. It nearly always leads to finding the fault or reporting a bug (except with Adobe who lifts it up to the next level)

Would it not be better if the Edge Animate team also did 100% of their own support? It is difficult for me to see the logic in mixing support questions about Interactive Acrobat with Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Fireworks, Dreamweaver or Coldfusion or… None of your customers that I know about works with the full range of Adobe products.

I'm not "taking sides" but one thing I have noticed is that you have not uploaded any of your files (after repeated requests to do so) for others here in the forum to take a crack at finding out what is happening.

I have found that, once someone engages me with an offer to help, uploading my files has almost always solved the problem - whether it be from one of the Edge Team Members, or one of the many talented people on these forums.

I can't verify the lack or abundance of support from Adobe as a whole but I CAN say that the fact that many of the actual "engineering staff" of the Edge project are following the forums here is absolutely amazing - to me it shows how dedicated they are at creating a "ground breaking" application, with "user input" at the forfront of their minds while doing so!

I have received support from the Edge team that has been well above and beyond anything I would expect (Joe & Elaine come to mind in my cases!). I have also received incredible help from others on this forum.

I've also been in your shoes where a particular problem continues to haunt you and no one can come up with a solution - It really is frustrating!

I really think that if you could post your project files to the forums, you would open up the possibilities to a much quicker resolution to your problem - Not taking anything away from the Edge team (Like I have already mentioned, they are the most supportive team of developers I have ever run across!!!), just stating the fact that numbers count and increasing the number of people here in the forums that could help would be beneficial :-)

Just trying to help - It's obvious (and understandable) that you are frustrated and want to get this issue resolved!

I am not frustrated anymore. I solved the problem myself by restoring an old version of Edge Animate 1.0.1 - and then it worked.. We have worked like hell over easter but we have now cleared the backlog and we have today published new Edge Animate animations successfully.

I have given details to Adobe Support level 3 so that they can can work with the server as well as with one of our Mac's here to find out why it does not work with 1.5 and I have been promised that I will have an answer in 1-2 days. During that time I just go on with other work.

Aethetically and technically, this animation falls flat. The site and animation look like they're from 1995, and I feel compelled to close my browser the instant the page loads.

Things move too fast and overlap each other—nothing can be absorbed. It is a hodge-podge mixture of movement and color that requires the user to struggle. And nothing is clickable!

Considering the varied image content that get pushed up against one another, the least you could have done would have been to frame the individual images. Realistically, there will never be a moment where I will want to look at a grid of unrelated visual content sliding around one another.

As a professional, it is important to always be learning new tricks. Help make the web 2.0 more beautiful, like the Edge community is doing. And try to do the arts justice (including Opera).

As long as our customers are happy with what we deliver to them, I think that it is their judgement, and not yours, that decides what is good or bad. After all, we work with some of the best photographers in the world.

The problem we are discussing is about faults in Adobe Edge Animate 1.5 - it has nothing to do with whether you like our animations or not. (if you have tried to look at what we have published using 1.5, you have only seen a blank screen.)

After reading through this thread, the overall vibe suggests that it is actually not a problem with Adobe Edge. If it turns out as such, I hope you can find the courage to apologize for the hard time you've been giving everyone who have been trying to help.

That said, I prefer to crowd source determinations of 'good or bad'. The fact is, Adobe Edge was made to help developers capitalize on the potential of the emerging Web 2.0. The work you have shared with us demonstrates a refusal to listen to the internet's zeitgeist. I understand your perspective that your client's satisfaction is all that matters, but if the client is not technologically savy (like your team claims to be), then the client may not know that there are better possibilities. Possibilities that would drive more traffic and interest to the client's website. I am merely suggesting you put heart into your work.

I do not know what it means to "work with some of the best photographers in the world" but in another life I was a film student, and I currently have a colleague who worked as Fuji Film's primier photographer for years. I can say without bias that the pictures cannot save an uninspired design/animation.

all best,

-Jesse

edit: Adobe Edge is not a black box like Flash was. I think this is an important detail.

As for me, I have found the Adobe Edge Team to be the most helpful. In my experience with life, I have found that there has always been givers and takers. The givers spend time helping others and the takers spend time demanding and complaining. It is up to any of us to decide what side we want to be on. It does not matter if the product is free or we paid for it. I find that Elaine, Joe, Sarah and others are givers. And of course there are users like Joel, Tim, Darrell, Schrene and many others that do spend time out of their busy schedules to answer questions. They are smart and instead of keeping their knowledge to themselves, they download files, make corrections, explain others what to do, make samples, etc... I am pretty sure that they all have jobs and deadlines as well but still they participate in the community in a great fashion.

All the people you mentioned, including yourself, have helped me and many others immensely with Edge!

Perhaps some people on this list (no one in particular) don't have the experience of having spent time on other lists. The fact that the engineers of Adobe Edge are here at all is amazing - the fact that they participate in the discussions and offer solutions is TRUELY amazing!

To me, it not only helps me with my problems but even more important lets me know that they are genually interested in offering the best program they can!

You don't see this all that often on discussion lists - believe me!

So, As I've stated many times before, "My hat is off" to those that take the time and effort to help others!!!

Even for those of us that feel we don't have the same level of knowledge when it comes to Edge, try and answer whenever possible - If you have learned ANYTHING about Edge since you first started, you have something to offer!

Besides, if you are like me and feel guilty about asking so many questions, contributing to the discussions alleviated that guilt :-)